


The Great Escape

by hera_hero



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dating, F/F, Family, Female Relationships, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Mostly fluff anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-10-30 09:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10874286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hera_hero/pseuds/hera_hero
Summary: Emma and Regina both try their hand at dating in Storybrooke. Needless to say, it doesn't go well. In the aftermath, has anything changed?





	1. Dinner and Ditch

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published attempt at fan-fiction. Hope you enjoy!  
> I've decided to make this a multi-chaptered fic instead of just a One-Shot! I don't know how long it'll be yet.
> 
> I do not own the characters or anything else in Storybrooke.

“Oh, fuc- shit- sorry!” A fancy phone fell onto the hard bathroom floor as the tall, blonde woman watched in horror.

It landed face down and she scrambled to her knees so she could grab it and return it to its owner – hopefully undamaged.

She almost collided head-first with the other occupant, who had also stooped to retrieve it. Emma glanced up at a head-full of dark hair.

“Regina?!” She exclaimed, realising who it was – and recognising that the fancy, elegant phone case was one she had seen before on numerous occasions.

“Emma.” Regina replied, in her usual way that made it seem like both a greeting and an exasperated remark at the same time. “What the hell are you doing in here?” Emma exclaimed, before realising that was probably a stupid question to ask someone in a bathroom.

“Well, actually,” Regina said – then she hesitated, ignoring the other woman’s moment of awkwardness.

Emma gave her a quizzical look. She had been expecting a smack down about the use of bathrooms and it being none of her business, yet Regina looked kind of uncertain.

“What is it?” Emma prompted curiously, hoping nothing was wrong.

“I’m sort of…” Regina paused again, looking for a non-pathetic way to describe her plight. “…hiding,” she finished lamely.

“Hiding?” the blonde’s eyebrows drew in dramatically, as she wondered what on earth could make Regina, ex-Evil Queen that she was, hide.

Regina grimaced slightly, “my date,” she responded.

Emma was utterly still for a second before letting out an amused snort, followed by a grin at Regina’s slightly offended facial expression. “Oh no, Regina, I wasn’t laughing at you it’s just – I’m doing the same thing.” She finished with a slightly self-deprecating smile in her friend’s direction.

“You are?” was the reply, Regina’s voice rising in surprise. “I didn’t know you were dating?”

“I didn’t know you were dating!” Emma countered, “and it was kinda my Mom’s idea…” she finished.

“Ah,” Regina nodded and smirked slightly at her mental image of Snow persuading her darling princess to brave the Storybrooke dating scene – which was, admittedly, fairly pitiful.

“And what lucky man are you escaping from tonight?” Emma inquired, getting more and more interested in the whole situation by the second.

“Oh, well – his name’s John Smith actually”.

“John Smith, seriously?” Emma scoffed, before remembering something, “-wait is that the Pocahontas dude?”

“Really I have no idea, all he’s talked about is boats and the sea and more boats”.

“Well if it is the Pocahontas guy, you did the right thing in ditching him – he was a real jerk in the second film,” Emma warned.

“Irrespective of his fictional indiscretions – he is extremely dull and not really my type.” Regina folded her arms and paced towards the other side of the small room, glancing at her reflection in the mirror as she passed.

“Oh, so you don’t like them strong and blonde?” Emma joked.

“It’s not that,” Regina said, rolling her eyes at Emma’s attempt at humour, “he’s just not – Robin.”

Emma nodded quietly at this, understanding that her friend had made a big leap in coming out on a date – even if Robin’s death was a long time ago.

“It was… Archie’s idea.” Regina answered Emma’s unspoken question. “He thinks I need to socialise more, with people other than you and Henry that is”.

“Ha, well I suppose if the therapist suggests it it’s worth a shot!” Emma replied, one corner of her mouth turning upward in a soft smile. “Although I resent Archie’s implication that being with me isn’t being ‘social’.” She continued half-jokingly.

“You know what he means dear.” Regina rolled her eyes again, trying to suppress an amused smirk at the indignant look on the Great Saviour’s face.

“Who are you hiding from anyway?” She filled the comfortable silence after a few seconds.

“Ah, his name’s Naveen – Prince Naveen actually – of course my mother set me up with a Prince…” Regina scoffed and Emma grinned, the unspoken agreement that Snow would love to see her daughter marry a prince passing between them. She was going to ask what was so bad about this Prince, but Emma quickly changed the subject.

“So, are we just going to hang out here all night then?” She asked, leaning against one of the two, low porcelain sinks which faced the stalls, “I can’t imagine the former queen exactly enjoys public toilets”.

“Well, not especially,” Regina admitted with a tilt of her head, pacing again – past Emma towards the wall nearest the door. She glanced up at the low, off-white ceiling and then down at the faded linoleum floor, passively acknowledging their ridiculous situation.

“We could climb out the window?” Emma suggested hopefully, the thought of Regina climbing out of a bathroom window amusing her greatly.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” was Regina’s predictable reply, “can we get out through the back of the Bed and Breakfast?” She asked. Her memory of the back rooms of Granny’s were slightly fuzzy and mostly filled with far-off memories of Graham and Robin.

“Er, I think there’s a fire exit in the laundry room?” Emma replied, having lived there for a few weeks she was better prepared for this admittedly bizarre state of affairs.

“That sounds like our best option then,” Regina replied, “although it will be the talk of this god-forsaken town for weeks if we just disappear”.

“Let the people talk – John Smith and Prince Naveen will have to fend for themselves.” Emma said, emphatically.

“Alright, come on then Miss Swan – let’s get out of here.” Regina strode towards the door in her killer black heels which matched her dress, and her hair. Emma watched her go ahead – glancing back at the bathroom and smirking briefly to herself as she followed through the door.

“What made you ditch the Prince then Saviour?” Regina whispered slightly as they wound through the corridors at Granny’s. She was as curious about Emma’s situation as Emma was about hers.

“I don’t think we need to whisper Regina.” Emma whispered back and then grinned at the look Regina shot her.

"He was just… so conceited, I swear in the hour I managed to stick around for he talked solidly about himself, like – he was pretty, but boring as hell,” was the actual reply. “And then he started mansplaining ‘the best way to rule a kingdom’ to me and I just had to escape.” Emma finished, grasping Regina’s arm lightly to turn her in the direction of the laundry room.

“He sounds… charming.” Regina deadpanned, feeling Emma’s pain at the horrendous interaction, as the other woman’s soft guidance nudged her in the right direction.

“Oh yeah, a real winner.” Emma replied, glad to have someone to complain to.

Regina glanced down briefly as they reached the laundry room.

“It is a shame I wasted this dress on tonight.” She sighed slightly, the brand new item of clothing had been hanging in her closet for weeks waiting for the right occasion. Tonight had definitely not been it.

“I know, I’m fairly sure I could have worn a brown paper bag and Prince Full-of-Himself wouldn’t have even noticed.” Emma sympathised, looking down at her own red ensemble. “Shoot I left my jacket in the restaurant,” she murmured to herself, only just realising.

“Granny will keep it behind the counter for you, you can go pick it up tomorrow.” Regina reassured, slightly distracted.

“You look really nice Emma,” she said, so softly that Emma almost didn’t hear. “He should have noticed”.

They had reached the laundry room door now and Regina pulled it open and entered the small space. Emma was slightly taken aback for a moment, but then she smiled and said, “you too Regina, black really is your colour”.

Regina returned her smile and pushed the handle on the fire door. A brisk wind blew in from the alley outside.

“After you,” she said, holding it open and gesturing to Emma.

“Well aren’t you quite the gentleman,” Emma smiled, almost not noticing how happy she was.

“Oh Miss Swan, you have no idea...” Regina replied, her tone light and flirty.

The door slammed shut loudly behind them as the two women stepped out into the night, the street lights at the end of the alley illuminating their faces as they grinned at each other in, slightly ridiculous, triumph.


	2. Chauvinism and Chivalry

A few dull, uneventful nights had passed since their dramatic escape from the worst dates known to mankind, or rather to womankind.

There had been some chatter and gossip about the whole thing, but mostly people had moved on – there was always more happening in Storybrooke than mere date-ditchers could compare with. The Charming family (including Regina, of course) was always doing strange things, this didn’t even rank in the top 20.

Regina was making her way down the high street, her eyes glued to her phone, trying to organise who was going to pick Henry up from school as she had a meeting at 3 which would probably drag on for at least a couple of hours. Her first thought had, of course, been Emma but she was on the evening shift and thus she had messaged Snow.

She was midway through replying to a message when someone rammed into her shoulder. Her head snapped up and she felt a wave of anger burn through her, her old instincts always just below the surface. She took a deep breath and tried to relax her clenched jaw.

Then she properly saw who she had collided with and a confused combination of emotions welled up.

It was John Smith, her date-ditchee, if one could call him that.

“Oh,” she said, slightly at a loss as to what to say. “Sorry,” she continued, lamely.

“Whatever.” He muttered, not making eye-contact with the former Queen.

Regina swallowed, should she maybe apologise for abandoning him the other night? She hadn’t really meant to hurt this man she barely knew, and these days she was always on the lookout for bad behaviour she should rectify… did this count as something the evil side of her would condone?

Smith said nothing, brushing past her and taking a few steps in the direction he had been heading.

“Hey look,” Regina called, making up her mind, “I’m sorry about leaving the other night-” She had been planning to say more but she was interrupted abruptly.

“Oh come on, you expect me to believe you are sorry – I was probably just another outlet for all that... _evil-ness_ you can’t use any more due to your perfect little family…”

Regina was speechless, which was not a predicament she often found herself in.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really that interested in you anyway,” he continued, in a slightly strained attempt at casual, “I only really agreed to go because I thought you might be a little sex-deprived and there’s no denying that you’re smoking hot, even if you are a bitch,”

More emotions swept through Regina; anger, hurt, embarrassment, but eventually she settled quite determinedly on towering rage.

Her face shifted, and she could see his facial expression change in response – a small flicker of fear appeared in his wide blue eyes, and he swallowed.

“You are a worthless, entitled idiot – with the brain of a worm and less of the attractiveness. You dare to-”

“Hey don’t you dare talk to me like that you little whore, you – you bitch, you-” He was yelling almost incomprehensibly now, his eyes darting side-to-side and his hands waving wildly.

“Hey!” A call came from down the street. Regina felt relief rise in her chest – it was as though her heart had dropped all the negative feelings from only seconds ago.

“You need to cool off right now buddy,” Emma intoned, her words sharp and menacing – the word ‘buddy’ leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that he was the absolute opposite right now.

Regina’s ex-date seemed to lose all sense of propriety at this point, his tone scathing and sarcastic,“Oh yeah well here comes your little girlfriend to save you, your Majesty – probably as grossed out by you as I am, but hey I’m sure you pay well-”

He was cut off by Emma’s fist colliding with his face.

“Argh!” He shouted as he clutched at his new split lip.

“Emma,” Regina said gently, the Saviour’s arrival having had a calming effect on her own anger. The blonde woman was breathing hard, her shoulders and chest rising and falling dramatically. She clutched her hand, the knuckles red and throbbing.

“Bitch,” Smith muttered, quickly shuffling away from the two women and down the street. A couple of people had crowded around the three since Emma’ arrival and Regina grasped her friend’s arm gently and led her away from them in the other direction.

There was silence between the two women as they walked slowly in the direction of Granny’s.

“That was very chivalrous of you Miss Swan,” Regina said, smiling down at Emma.

She had a hand behind her, guiding her but not quite touching her back.

“Well he was being a real dick!” Emma half-shouted, venom still clear in her voice.

“He was indeed,” Regina agreed, nodding. She wasn’t sure why she was so unaffected, but Emma needed her to be calm at the moment, so she would be.

“How is your hand?” She asked, grabbing it with her own to have a look. Emma winced but didn’t pull away.

“It’s fine, I’ve had worse,” she mumbled, shrugging. Regina wondered if she was embarrassed, as she wasn’t quite meeting her eye.

“Hey,” Regina said, Emma lifted her head a little to actually look at her. “Thank you,” Regina placed her hand on the other woman’s shoulder as she said the words, and the two women stayed like that for a moment, both letting the last dregs of adrenaline fade away.

“Let me get you some coffee or something Emma, and maybe some ice for your hand?” Regina suggested, indicating Granny’s with her head as she let her hands fall back to her sides.

“Sure, maybe cocoa, I think I need to settle my nerves,” Emma agreed readily, her enthusiasm soothing Regina's slight worry at being politely rejected - something she couldn't stand. Regina rolled her eyes at her friend’s unusual hot drink habits as they made their way, side by side, over to the diner.


	3. Cocoa and Coffee

Emma’s hand was propped on the table with a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a rag covering her knuckles.

For some reason Regina’s eyes kept straying over to her friend’s incapacitated fingers – a small jolt of gratitude mixed with worry running through her each time.

“I should probably get back to the station,” Emma muttered reluctantly, her free hand wrapped around a now-empty mug of cocoa.

“I just messaged your father – he said he’ll cover your shift, and he’ll pick Henry up from school on the way into the station and drop him off here,” Regina said in response. Emma just stared at her for a second.

“Oh,” she said, intelligently, “That’s great,” she added, brightening up noticeably.

“How about another cocoa then?” Regina asked, moving to stand from the booth they were occupying near the back of the diner.

“Oh, I can-” Emma started, half-moving out of her seat.

“Nonsense, Emma, let me,” Regina scolded, rolling her eyes at the other woman’s fierce independence. Emma flopped back onto the red leather, belatedly realising that it made sense for the woman with two working hands to fetch the drinks.

Just as Regina was returning to the table with cocoa for Emma and coffee for herself Henry walked through the diner door, still in his school uniform.

“Hey kid!” Emma called, her face animated and excited. She had seemingly forgotten about her hand for the moment.

“Mom?! What happened,” Henry replied, making his way quickly to the booth his mothers were occupying.

“Ah yeah,” Emma remembered, looking down at the bruised appendage, “I kinda punched a guy…” She grinned sheepishly up at her son.

Regina quirked an eyebrow, “Emma wasn’t just randomly attacking men, she saved me from a rather unpleasant encounter with a man called John Smith, who I want you both to promise to stay away from,” she finished, giving Emma and Henry identical ‘you-will-obey-me-in-this’ looks.

“Oh, well, sure Mom – I don’t think I’ve ever even met this guy… why was it unpleasant?” Henry replied, knowing complete agreement was the best option.

Emma’s goofy grin was back on her face as she watched Regina explain to their son the entire debacle. She loved it when Regina cared about her safety, it was something she had rarely experienced growing up.

“- and so Mr Smith was quite upset and that led to him verbally calling me out this afternoon,” Regina finished, glossing over all the details of the encounter.

Henry experienced a wave of worry, but looking between his two mothers – who were now arguing about getting Henry cocoa and who was paying for the drinks – he knew they could handle things like this. After all, they’d all faced much worse together.

“Can you move your hand?” Henry asked as he slid into the booth while Regina got up to fetch him a drink.

“Yeah, enough to make me think nothing’s broken at least,” Emma responded, removing the ice pack and showing Henry her slightly limited range of movement. “It’s just swollen,” she added.

“Does Grandma know?” Henry inquired innocently, but Emma knew he was inwardly smirking at the mental image of his Grandma calling his mother out for her rash behaviour.

“I don’t know,” Emma admitted, “Regina texted David but I’m not sure if he told Mom…”

“He didn’t say anything when he picked me up,” Henry chimed in, moving down the seat as Regina returned holding a mug.

“There,” she said, sitting down with a flick of her hair to get it out of her face, “now we all have a drink”.

“You should apply to be a waitress here, you know you’re very good at it…” Emma grinned at Regina’s instant look of distaste.

“No way would I be caught dead working for the overgrown wolf…” Regina responded, fixing Emma with a withering look. Emma chuckled and Henry rolled his eyes at the two of them.

“Where’s Ruby anyway?” Henry asked, looking slightly more hopeful than he would have wanted. Noticing this, Emma kept her facial expression casual and replied, “She’s starting that part-time internship at the Mayor’s Office today,”

She looked at Regina and smiled when she said the last few words, knowing full well that she had had a lot to do with Ruby getting the job.

“Oh yeah that’s right!” Henry replied, “I’m sure she’ll be great at that,” he added, a little wistfully. Regina and Emma exchanged a look.

“I’m sure she will,” Emma agreed, her tone carefully neutral. She wasn’t going to tease the boy for his first crush.

“Hey,” Emma continued, suddenly remembering something, “didn’t you have a meeting today?” She looked at Regina again.

“I got them to change the time to 5 instead of 3, I’ll have to leave in about half an hour,” Regina replied casually, as though extremely important meetings were always re-scheduled for cocoa and coffee.

“Oh, ok,” Emma replied, slightly bemused, “I suppose being the Mayor has its perks?”

“Indeed,” Regina smirked, before turning to Henry and inquiring about his school day. Emma adjusted the bag of frozen peas on her hand and watched the two chat about school, and Henry’s classmates and the upcoming Summer Play.

There was a lull in the discussion for a few moments and Henry asked Regina what was for dinner, enthusiastic as always about his mother’s cooking.

“Oh I’m not sure, I planned to be home earlier and I was going to make Spaghetti Carbonara, but I don’t think I’ll have time now-” She trailed away, trying to think of an alternative.

“How about me and Henry cook something up?” Emma suggested, her casual tone slightly forced. What if Regina didn’t want her in her kitchen? Or what if she didn’t want her to interrupt her time with Henry?

“That sounds great,” Regina exclaimed a second later, putting a stop to Emma’s overthinking. “Do you – do you know how to cook?” She inquired gently, not really wanting to offend the blonde woman, but also not being able to remember ever having seen Emma cook anything.

“Well I can make Mac and Cheese, it’s not quite Carbonara but its close?” Emma offered, wondering if Regina had ever even eaten her favourite meal. It wasn’t exactly loaded with kale or any other health food.

“Perfect,” Regina replied, “Although I expect you to make vegetables to go with it because I refuse to let our son get rickets or scurvy or anything else like that,” she clarified.

“Regina, this isn’t the enchanted forest, people don’t get scurvy anymore,” Emma teased, rolling her eyes.

“Just agree, Miss Swan,” Regina replied, trying to hide a smile and sound menacing.

“Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever – vegetables it is,” Emma agreed long-sufferingly, making a face at Henry when Regina reached down to grab her purse.

“Excellent, I will be back at the house at seven, ready for a well-balanced meal,” Regina said demurely, pretending she hadn’t seen Emma and Henry’s exasperated looks.

“Yup,” Emma agreed happily. “See you later Mom,” Henry added, waving a hand as Regina disappeared through the door.

“Right then kid,” Emma beamed, “time to create a culinary masterpiece!”


	4. Family and Feelings

“Zelena?!” Emma exclaimed as she opened the door and saw the wrong sister. 

“Hello Emma, what an enthusiastic greeting,” Zelena replied, sarcastically. 

“Sorry, it’s just I was kind of expecting-”

“Regina?” Zelena butted in, shifting her daughter in her arms and sweeping through the door and into the lobby. 

“She’s just getting some paperwork from her car, I dropped by the office to see her and she invited me and Robyn for dinner,” the red-headed woman explained, dropping a large bag of baby accoutrements in the hall. 

“Oh,” Emma replied, “well, come in then – we’ll set another plate,” she concluded, more warmly now she understood the change in plans.

Zelena continued through into the kitchen with Robyn, and Emma heard Henry cheerfully greet his aunt and cousin. Emma was about to follow her when she saw Regina struggling up the path with an inhuman amount of work in her arms. 

“Oh hey let me help,” she called, jogging out to take some of the load. 

“Thanks,” breathed Regina, “sorry about-” she gestured towards the house, and Zelena, and then paused as if she didn’t really know what she was sorry about. 

“You’re sorry about – Zelena?” Emma repeated slowly, her eyebrows furrowing and her head tilting to the side. 

“Well,” Regina paused, uncertain, “I suppose this was going to be a family meal…” She continued. 

“Zelena is your family Regina?” Emma added, slightly unsure as to Regina’s point. 

There was a pause as the two women crossed through the threshold and turned right into Regina’s study to deposit her paperwork. 

“It would have been nice just the three of us,” Regina eventually said, almost too quietly for Emma to hear. 

Emma was a little stunned at the confession, and Regina was already half way out the door and heading for the kitchen when she realised she was standing staring gormlessly at where the former Queen had been standing. 

She bounded after her, her mind running in a thousand different directions at once. She wasn’t even sure why, it’s not like Regina had said anything particularly astounding… was it weird for a woman to want to have dinner with her child and her child’s other parent? Was it weird that the thought of Regina hoping for a quiet family meal with the three of them made Emma’s entire body feel warm and light? 

No, Emma supposed. This is what families did, what they were. She just still wasn’t used to it. And admittedly their situation was different from a lot of other families. 

Shaking her head as she entered the kitchen she fixed a grin on her face and took her place next to Regina. 

It wasn’t long before Emma’s grin became unabashedly genuine, the conversation flowing relatively easily – even between the two ex-rival sisters. Emma had had conversations with Zelena before but it was interesting to sit down and properly talk to her. She was as sarcastic as her sibling, and had an even darker sense of humour which Emma found amusing, and all-in-all the evening was entirely pleasant.

As it drew nearer to quarter to nine Zelena began to pack Robyn’s things – which had somehow strewn themselves over the whole room in the mere 90 minutes she’d been there. She apologised for rushing off but she needed to get the infant to bed. Regina smiled to herself sadly, she remembered the complicated schedule of having a small baby, but she hadn’t had any family to while away the hours before Henry’s bedtime. 

After they’d waved Zelena and Robyn off, Henry excused himself – promising to only read for half an hour before bed, as it was a school night. Neither of his mother’s believed him, but neither of them protested. 

Emma and Regina walked silently back to the kitchen after hugging their son goodnight at the bottom of the stairs. They started clearing away in comfortable silence. 

“So, maybe we should do this more frequently?” Regina eventually proposed, a bit of hesitancy in her voice. 

“Like - the meal?” Emma sought to clarify, taking leftovers one-handed from Regina so she could place them in the fridge. 

“As much as I enjoyed your Mac and Cheese dear, I didn’t mean specifically your one culinary speciality,” Regina smirked, glancing at Emma to see her predictable reaction. 

“Hey, I could eat that every night and I would never get bored,” Emma countered, faking outrage. 

“I’m sure you could,” Regina rolled her eyes, “but what I meant was we should have a family dinner – maybe once a week?” Regina’s voice was more confident now, their easy banter reminding her that this was Emma, her friend. 

“That would be great,” Emma replied, her tone softening, “I bet Henry would love it”. 

They finished placing dishes in the dishwasher together and stood in the centre of the kitchen. 

“Excellent, well how about next Wednesday then?” Regina inquired, always the organiser. 

“Sounds good,” Emma replied, sticking her uninjured hand in the front pocket of her jeans. 

The two were silent again, and the moments stretched out before them. For some reason Emma was very reluctant to leave, and Regina was reluctant to let her. 

“I guess I’ll see you – er – on Friday I think, for Mulan’s party at Granny’s?” Emma said eventually. 

“Oh yes, yes of course, I’ll – I’ll see you then.” Regina agreed, and the silence fell once more. 

“Will Miss Lucas be there?” Regina asked after a moment. 

“Oh yeah, sure, I think so?” Emma replied, slightly confused as to why Regina was asking after Ruby. 

“It’ll be interesting to see Henry’s reaction…” Regina said, by way of explanation. 

“Oh! That’s right, did you see his face earlier?!” the Saviour giggled and waved her hand around in what she guessed was the direction of Granny’s. 

“I did indeed,” Regina was much more sober, thinking about how old her son was becoming, “I hope he won’t get hurt by this…” 

“No I’m sure he won’t even bring it up, most people’s first crushes just fade away right?” Emma reassured. Regina nodded, suppressing the rather strange urge to ask Emma about her first crush. 

“Right, so we’ll keep an eye on him at the party, but other than that I think we can just leave it alone?” Emma continued. 

“I agree, that’s probably best,” was the other woman’s reply. 

After standing in silence for an agonising amount of time Emma said, “Right,” again and moved towards the door, Regina seeming to break out of her own trance and stepping after her. 

“See you then,” Emma repeated. 

“On Friday,” Regina agreed. 

Emma turned away from the house and down the path, somehow feeling extremely awkward. As she reached the gate she shook her head to clear her thoughts – it was just because her and Regina weren’t often alone in her house. That was all. 

She climbed into her bug, already looking forward to Friday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thank you so much for reading - I know there's not been too much plot yet but there will be a little more soon! Please feel free to give constructive criticism or boundless praise - whatever you want! :D


	5. Paperwork and Plans

Emma woke up extremely slowly on Friday morning, her whole body screaming for her to go back to sleep and actually get some rest. 

For some reason she hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, staring at the ceiling for countless hours on end.

Now she had to get to her shift, which started at 8 o’clock and finished when Dorothy would come and release her at 5 o’clock so she could have time to eat and get ready before going to help Mulan set up for her party at Granny’s at 7. 

She groaned loudly as she rolled onto her stomach, the idea of the upcoming day making her even less willing to emerge from her sheets.

Unbidden an image of Regina popped into her head, and the fact that she’d see her friend at Granny’s later made her a little less reluctant. She managed to stumble to her closet, throwing it open and eyeing her wardrobe critically. 

20 minutes later, clad in her signature red leather, she was hopping through the door of the station, juggling an armful of files she had taken home to look at and a very large cup of coffee. As she made her way to the sheriff’s desk her phone started ringing, and she ended up almost dropping everything in an attempt to answer it. 

“Emma?” Came an instantly recognisable voice from the other end of the line. 

“Regina?!” Emma almost-squealed, wincing slightly at the weird sound of her own voice.

“Are you… ok?” Regina inquired, causing Emma to wince again. 

“Oh yeah, yeah, sure – just – I almost dropped coffee all down me trying to answer the phone,” the Sherriff explained, flopping back into her battered leather desk chair. 

“Sounds… graceful,” was Regina’s reply, and Emma could almost hear her friend’s eyebrow raising in sarcasm. 

“So did you just ring me to harp on me for my lack of co-ordination or what?” Emma asked cheerfully, waiting for Regina to explain why she was calling. 

“I have some matters to discuss with the Sherriff, which happens to be you Miss Swan,” Regina’s reply came. 

“Ah so this is a business call,” the blonde answered. 

“Yes indeed, well actually I was wondering-” Regina paused almost imperceptibly, her dislike of not having total conversational control rising within her, “whether we could make it a business lunch?” she finished, the slight uncertainty in her voice telling Emma immediately that the other woman was a little uncomfortable. 

“That sounds great,” Emma replied, not having to fake her enthusiasm. The idea of seeing Regina to break up her long shift of paperwork sounded excellent. 

“Ok,” the reply came, “I’ll come to the station at half 12”. 

After saying their goodbyes Emma put the phone down and tipped her chair back even further, staring at the ceiling. Eventually she sighed, turned to the pile of paper beside her and beginning to do some actual work. 

***

By half 12 Emma’s mood had got worse and the hours of bureaucratic pencil-pushing had given her the beginnings of a pounding headache. 

She hadn’t had any callouts – which she supposed was good, but really she was bored stiff. She physically watched the clock count down the minutes until 12.30. Then 12.31, then 12.32. She growled to herself, this was not the time for Regina to break her well-established punctuality streak. 

She flexed her still-bruised hand and scolded herself, the Mayor would get here when she got here.

12 minutes later and a harassed looking Regina burst through the doors. Emma immediately jumped to her feet. Something didn’t seem right. 

To her utter disbelief, she noticed Regina’s eyes were sparkling a little more than usual – the dark colour refracted by the unfallen tears. A few blinks from Regina and any sign of emotion had vanished. She looked much more composed, if a little shaken.

In reality, just the sight of the blonde sheriff had been enough to steady the Regina’s nerves. 

“Did something happen?” Emma asked, moving around the desk and standing in front of her friend. 

Regina hesitated and Emma took a small step closer. 

“It was that idiot Smith again,” she admitted, fixing her eyes on the Sheriff’s. Anger flickered across Emma’s features, along with surprise. What was this John Smith doing harassing the Mayor? Surely a bad date wasn’t worth this? Emma shook her head in disbelief. 

“What did he do,” she asked after a moment, her tone a little icier than she was expecting. 

There was another pause and Regina lowered her gaze. Emma reached out a hand and placed it on Regina’s arm. The brunette raised her head up, back to Emma’s eyes. 

“He didn’t really do anything,” Regina muttered uncomfortably, “he was just shouting stuff down the street, calling me names – I’m not sure why it even upset me, I’ve been called much worse…” She trailed off and walked to the chair in front of Emma’s desk, sitting down tiredly. Emma felt a wave of pity for the former Evil Queen.

She was going to make sure this didn’t happen again. 

“Ok,” she said in a voice full of determination, “the first thing we’re going to do is fill out an official harassment complaint against Smith-”

Emma was about to continue when Regina opened her mouth a little, as if she was going to say something. 

Emma knew exactly what the Mayor was thinking. 

“Yes, unfortunately this sort of thing does happen all the time… no, that’s no reason not to report it… no, it’s not too small a problem to report… and no, trust me the sheriff-” she said tapping the badge at her hip “-will not mind”. There was a moment’s silence. 

“Did I cover everything?” Emma asked, smiling as Regina rolled her eyes. 

“Ok, what’s step 2 then?” Regina inquired, leaning back and relaxing slightly in the rickety chair. 

“Once the paperwork has been filed, we can give Smith a warning – then if it happens again we can take further action… we can also make sure you’re not alone on the streets too often – if that’ll help?” She said, the last question a little shy as she was sure Regina wouldn’t want any kind of intrusive assistance.

Regina pursed her lips slightly. Emma was right to think Regina wouldn’t want anything getting in the way of her independence or her schedule – but she wasn’t going to reject the offer out of hand. 

“Maybe I could cope with that… sometimes,” she replied, secretly thinking that it would be quite nice to be escorted everywhere by Emma. 

“Alright,” Emma replied, slightly surprised but totally on-board, “let’s go and get some lunch and we can talk about what we can do,” she continued. 

“You do remember that this is supposed to be a working lunch right?” Regina scolded, raising an eyebrow in amusement. 

“Eh sure, the safety of the Mayor is my job – that means me escorting you to Granny’s should go down on my over-time,” Emma grinned and Regina flashed her a disapproving look. 

“Joking, joking,” Emma murmured, smirking as she followed Regina out of the station.


	6. Birthdays and Bars

Regina had a bounce in her step as she left work that afternoon. 

Her lunch with Emma had been – fun. She always seemed to have fun with the Saviour. 

They had agreed that Regina would call Emma if she ever wanted someone to walk with her anywhere and, though she was slightly loathe to admit it, it made the former Queen feel better to know Emma would be by her side if she needed it. 

She drove the 10 minutes back to her house and jumped out of her car. Work had run late and she only had an hour to get ready before heading to Mulan’s party for 9. Entering her bedroom a moment later, she opened the doors to her walk-in closet, eyeing the assembled outfits critically. She wanted to look good tonight. 

After a few seconds thought she decided to play to her strengths. She took down a tight black dress and retrieved a pair of black shoes from the shelves in the corner. 

She changed, touched up her make-up and ran a brush through her hair. She checked her phone to see the time. It was only 8.30.

Then she sat on her bed, a little at a loss for something to do. She had no idea why she seemed jittery. 

Thinking it through she decided it was probably just because she hadn’t been to any kind of party in a while, and she was always a bit nervous that trouble would start at these things. This was Storybrooke after all. 

It seemed like days passed before it was time to leave. A horn beeped outside and Regina glanced out of the window quickly before descending the stairs. She could see Emma’s blonde hair, coordinating nicely with her ridiculous yellow bug. 

“Hey!” Emma called as Regina opened the passenger door and climbed into the car. 

“Hey,” Regina replied, smiling, “thanks for picking me up – you didn’t have to,” she added. 

“It's no problem,” Emma grinned.

The ride to Granny’s was quiet but comfortable. 

“Did the party preparations go ok?” Regina inquired, pulling the shade down to check her lipstick in the mirror. 

Emma glanced over to her, “Yeah it was fine, there wasn’t much to do to be honest,” she shrugged. She had mostly checked alcohol supplies and helped Granny set food out. 

She parked her bug round the corner from their destination, without noticing that it was just past the alley where she and Regina had ended up on their ill-fated date night.

She climbed out of the car. Regina joined her on the sidewalk and Emma noticed she was wearing the same dress she’d been wearing to her date with Smith. 

“Hey, you’re wearing that dress,” she blurted out. 

“Oh yeah,” Regina replied, looking down at her outfit, “I just – wanted to wear it to something good I suppose, I didn’t want to waste it again,” she explained, not too sure why she had chosen this dress herself. 

“Well, it looks just as good as it did then,” Emma said quietly, after a pause. 

“Thank you, you look good too,” Regina smiled, her eyes flicking down to Emma’s black skirt and white blouse, and then returning to her face. 

They walked towards the diner, Emma going ahead and opening the door when they reached it. Regina followed her in.

They were obviously slightly late. There was a healthy crowd milling around in the small space already, the middle tables having been pushed to the sides. 

“Emma!” A loud call came, Ruby winding her way to her friend holding an almost-empty glass. 

“And Regina!” She added, when she saw the Mayor. 

“Hey Rubes,” Emma replied smirking at the speed Ruby seemed to have intoxicated herself.

“Where’ve you two been?!” The tipsy werewolf scolded, throwing an arm over Emma’s shoulders. 

“I was just picking Regina up,” Emma explained.

“Picking her? Picking her up?” Ruby repeated, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah from her place,” Emma added patiently. 

“Wait, you were at Regina’s place?” Ruby asked, her head falling to one side like a confused puppy. 

“Well no-” the blonde started, before realising it was a bit pointless.

“Whatevs – let’s get you two drinks!” Ruby squealed, forgetting about the whole exchange. Regina rolled her eyes at Emma as the younger woman led both of them over the breakfast bar where the drinks were. 

They greeted a lot of people in their short journey across the room, Regina nodding cordially at Jasmine and Aladdin, smiling at Archie and waving to Katherine who was standing at the back with her husband. 

“Moms!” A voice said behind them, they turned to see Henry coming towards them.

“Hello Henry,” Regina greeted her son, placing a hand on his back briefly and smiling.

“Hi Regina,” another voice came, Henry having been followed by his Grandma. 

“Hey Snow,” she replied, “How’s Neal doing?” 

“Oh he’s great, thanks for asking,” the enthusiastic woman responded warmly. 

Soon David joined the small group, bringing Mulan over from the jukebox where the two had been arguing over some classic rock band. 

“Happy Birthday Mulan,” Regina said, smiling at her. 

“Anything else you need doing?” Emma asked after Mulan had thanked Regina happily. 

“No you’ve done loads already Emma!” Mulan replied. 

At this point Ruby turned from where she’d been talking to Ariel. 

“She’s not helpful! She was late!” She announced, leaning against Mulan slightly unsteadily. 

“Not that late!” objected Emma. 

“She was staying at R-Regina’s place,” Ruby slurred.

There was a moment of silence. Mulan gave Emma a piercing look which she couldn’t make head nor tails of. 

“You were at Regina’s?” Snow asked.

“Oh I just picked her up,” Emma said casually, taking a sip of her drink. 

Henry, who didn’t think anything was even slightly out of the ordinary, engaged his Mom in an enthusiastic conversation about birthday cake - shooting glances across at Ruby when he thought no one was looking.

Mulan was still watching Emma, and it was making her slightly uncomfortable. She took another gulp of wine quickly.

***

A little later Emma was sitting on one of the breakfast bar stools slumped against the counter watching her mother start a loud, pointless argument with a baffled looking Aurora. 

Her head was spinning as she watched Mulan arrive on the scene and diffuse the situation. Aurora threw her head back and laughed at something the other woman whispered in her ear. Mulan gave her a soft look and when Aurora had stopped laughing she kissed her gently. 

For some reason Emma’s eyes were fixed on the two. The moment lasted just a second but she felt the need to get up and do something afterwards. 

There weren’t many people left in the small diner now, it was almost midnight. Snow and Charming had taken Henry and Neal back to their apartment, where Henry was staying for the night at Snow’s insistence. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Emma said as she made her way over to Ruby a little unsteadily, “we should go somewhere,” she suggested. 

“Go somewhere?” Ruby asked, having sobered up slightly since earlier.

“Yeah like a bar or a club or whatever,” Emma clarified, finishing the rest of her drink in one go. 

“Yes let’s go somewhere!” Ariel pipped in from nearby, and soon a small group of women was gathered in the centre of the room, planning their next move. 

It was decided that they would head to Tiana’s – a new bar which had opened across town. 

They ordered two cabs for the 8 of them. Belle, Aurora, Mulan and Ariel climbed into one, leaving Ashley, Ruby, Emma and Regina to get in the other. 

“I don’t think-” Regina started, hovering on the sidewalk outside the cab. 

“Oh come on, it’s just one night Madame Mayor,” Emma whined, anticipating Regina’s uncertainty.

Unsure as to what she was getting herself into, she nodded and slid into the backseat after the blonde.

A few minutes into the journey and Emma was being pressed into Regina’s side by a widely gesticulating Ashley, whose alcohol tolerance had gone slightly downhill in the years since she’d had Alex. 

The parts of her body touching Regina were strangely warm – maybe it was the wine? She turned to roll her eyes at her friend as Ashley flung one of her arms out excitedly, smiling at Regina’s responding expression, which was both disapproving and amused. The slight upwards turn at the corner of Regina’s mouth made her feel even warmer and she suddenly felt as though she was in for a hell of a night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys!   
> I've actually finished writing this story now - it should be 8 more chapters after this one, and I'm planning to post one chapter every day!


	7. Dance and Drink

There was a lot of laughter and stumbling as the eight women disembarked from their taxis, Aurora and Mulan clinging to each other, Ruby trying to hold Ashley up and Ariel spinning around and singing loudly to herself. 

After almost entering the bar without the former mermaid, the entire party managed to get indoors and grab a booth. Tiana’s was comfortably busy – a group of people on the dance floor swaying to the loud, heavy beat of the music. 

Drinks were ordered, and the atmosphere between the women was excited and happy – all of them shouting across at each other over the noise. 

“Let’s go dance!” Ashley screamed at Ariel, who did not need to be asked twice. Ruby and Belle followed them, Ruby pulling Belle along behind her. 

Emma and Regina were left in their seats across from Aurora and Mulan. The former was talking into the side of Mulan’s neck, her lips brushing against her ear and her hand on her leg. The whole scene was starting to get a bit NSFW. Emma and Regina glanced at each other. 

“Shall we go dance or something?” Regina asked loudly, her eyes fixed on the couple in front of them. 

“Yes let’s go!” Emma yelled back, the two tripping over themselves as they got out of the booth. 

On the way to the dance floor they paused at the bar and Emma bought Regina and herself shots – badgering the Mayor until she did them, grimacing all the while. Tiana, who was behind the bar, grinned at the two women. 

“Having a good time?” She asked Emma jovially, mixing a cocktail for another customer. 

“Oh yeah, this place is great,” Emma replied, leaning against the bar and grinning at the attractive woman. 

“Glad you think so!” Tiana exclaimed, amused at the blonde’s behaviour. 

“How long you been open anyway?” The sheriff asked. She’d been called out here once before to break up a bar fight but she’d never been in her capacity as a private citizen.

“Couple of weeks now,” Tiana replied, handing the man next to Emma two tall colourful drinks.

“Oh nice… cool,” Emma nodded, slightly distracted from their conversation by Tiana’s brilliant smile. 

“Emma?” A voice came from her other side, where Regina was standing. Emma turned to her friend. 

“I thought we were dancing?” the older woman asked, her arms crossed across her chest. 

“Yeah, yeah sorry of course!” Emma shouted, grinning once more at the pretty bar-owner before following Regina through the crowd towards the rest of their party. 

What Emma was about to learn, was that Regina could really dance. 

She must have stared for several long moments before remembering that it was weird to stand frozen still on a dance floor. With considerable effort she stopped following Regina’s dance moves with her eyes and focused on dancing herself. 

Regina, whose good mood had lessened slightly, channelled all the night’s feeling into her feet and hips – trying to just enjoy the music and the friendly laughter around her. The alcohol buzzing in her system gave her an excuse to let her Mayor persona slip away a little.

Unsurprisingly, she had not frequented any bars or clubs under the curse, and had only been rarely since then, but she always felt like she should make up for lost time. She loved dancing, and she loved this type of dancing. 

Ruby grabbed her hand and spun her round, the drinks she'd downed a few minutes ago obviously making her brave enough to break into Regina’s personal space. The older woman didn’t mind, she span the part-time werewolf round as well – giggling when she almost fell into the guy behind them.

“Emma?!” She heard an unfamiliar voice ask. Looking in the direction of the voice’s owner she saw a tall, handsome, dark-skinned man with a long jaw and curly black hair.   
“Oh – hey Naveen,” she heard the sheriff reply, noting the slight uncertainty in her voice. 

“Er, how you doing?” He asked awkwardly. 

“I’m good!” Emma replied, “and – and you?” 

Regina winced at the clumsy, shouted exchange. A moment later, Naveen seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing Emma and – obviously slightly drunk – he leaned in close to her and began to say something that Regina couldn’t hear. From Emma’s face she could see it was not something her friend was enjoying listening to. 

In less than a second Regina was next to her, pulling her away to the beat of the music and placing herself between Emma and Naveen. She kept Emma’s good hand in hers and the two danced together. Sneaking a glance at the bothersome Prince, Regina noted happily that he seemed to have instantly recovered and was now hitting on another girl, whose friend was eyeing him in disgust. Regina would be willing to bet the unknown woman was about to do exactly what she just had. 

Emma looked a little unsettled, but she was enjoying dancing with Regina quite a lot, so she didn’t feel too bad. 

“This is the problem of dating in a small town,” she leaned in to tell Regina, her breath warm on the Mayor’s ear. 

Regina rolled her eyes, “it’s the problem with dating men,” she replied jokingly. Emma laughed and the two continued to dance and talk, forgetting everything around them. 

Completely unknown to the two women, Mulan and Aurora had joined the group. They were shooting glances at the pair and exchanging looks. This was not lost on Ruby, who was like a bloodhound (pun intended) when it came to gossip. 

Time ticked away. Belle left with Ashley at around 1am, the latter having reached the sobbing stage of drunkenness. Ariel got picked up by Eric soon after. At 2am Mulan and Ruby were discussing leaving, whilst Aurora was in the bathroom. 

Emma and Regina were sitting at the bar now, heads close as they cracked up about whatever joke one of them had told. As Mulan and Ruby watched they downed another shot each and picked up their conversation again. 

“Should we take those two with us?” Mulan asked, slightly fascinated at seeing a drunk and very relaxed Regina. 

“Erm, probably,” Ruby replied, thinking that it probably wouldn’t be easy to explain to the other two that it was time to go home. But the bar was closing soon anyway so they might as well all leave together. 

Aurora returned, and the three made their way over to Emma and Regina. 

“Guys, guys, guys,” Emma said pseudo-seriously, her habit of saying things three times when she was drunk making Mulan roll her eyes, “we’re fine, we’re drinking – come on! Stop being spoil sports…” She pouted. 

“These lot probably just can’t handle their drink,” Regina hypothesised, her attempt at scathing slightly ruined by her unfocused side-eye.

After several attempts to get them to leave it was decided that Emma and Regina would stay at the bar and make their own way home. 

The other people in the bar started leaving in twos and threes, calling cabs – or very annoyed significant others – to pick them up.

Emma and Regina were the last to stumble away, the clock tower announcing it was 3 in the morning. Emma was having a giggling fit over Regina who was carrying her very high and very expensive heels in one of her hands and was clinging onto Emma unsteadily with the other. 

The Saviour was just trying to take a picture of the dishevelled former Queen with her phone – which she couldn’t see very well – when she felt her friend tense up. 

They were a fair way away from the lights of the bar by now, and not much could be seen clearly in the darkness. 

Looking around slowly Emma saw what Regina had. 

There was a tall figure standing motionless on the other side of the street. 

The blonde grasped her friend’s arm and pulled her away. Even in her intoxicated state she knew that hanging around on dark streets wasn’t a good idea. 

After a fairly considerable amount of time, and rather a lot of stumbling, the two women managed to make it back to Emma’s flat on the high street. Climbing up the stairs Emma realised she hadn’t really been thinking about where they were going and had just headed home. 

“Regina, Regina… Regina?!” She said in a loud stage whisper, not wanting to disturb her neighbours but probably doing so anyway. 

“Emma?” Regina replied, sitting on the top step and staring forlornly at the bottom of her tights which were ruined from walking without her heels. She hadn’t had this much to drink in a long time and her head felt very fuzzy.

“Your, gonna ah-have to stay on m’sofa,” the other woman slurred. Her eyebrows furrowed, “or wait, no I’ll, I’ll… I’ll sleep on the sofa, cos you’re the queen”. 

“Shhhh I’m not the queen,” Regina replied, standing and following Emma through her front door. She’d never been in the other woman’s new flat before. Emma had only been living there for about a month. 

Waving her friend through to the bedroom Emma pulled off her boots and collapsed on her couch, pulling a blanket over herself. Regina didn’t protest and lurched towards the other room, leaving the door wide open. 

She yanked her dress over her head – suddenly far too warm – and pulled off her tights. 

The last thing she remembered thinking before drifting off to sleep was how comfortable and warm Emma’s bed was.


	8. Sore heads and Sandwiches

Regina was woken by a loud knock at the front door. Looking around at the unfamiliar room she was in, she stood unsteadily. She heard Emma emit a loud, angry groan from the other room, but there was no sound to suggest Emma was about to open the door. 

She glanced down at herself, realising she was only wearing her underwear. Finding a robe on the back of the door she threw it on and, pressing a hand to her throbbing forehead, stumbled across the apartment to open the door – glancing at the Emma-shaped lump curled under a blanket on the sofa. 

There was a moment of silence as she stared at Snow, Aurora and Ruby through narrowed eyes, cursing these idiotic women who had made her get up. 

“Regina?!” Snow exclaimed loudly, moving slowly into the apartment and placing a take-out coffee cup on the breakfast bar separating the kitchen from the living room. 

“Good morning,” Regina rasped, her normally low voice having dropped another half an octave. 

Snow seemed slightly at a loss as to what question to ask first.

“How was the rest of your night then?” Ruby inquired suggestively, trying to hide her smirk in the lid of her large cappuccino. 

“Fine,” Regina replied tersely, wrapping the robe a little tighter around herself. Unfortunately this just drew everyone’s attention to the fact that she was wearing Emma’s robe, and didn’t seem to be wearing much underneath. 

Not noticing this Regina walked to the sink and poured herself a large glass of water – drinking it all down in several gulps. 

“I would’ve brought you coffee if I’d have known you were going to be here?” Snow said, her tone indicating that this statement was also a gentle question as to why Regina was in her daughter’s flat in her underwear. 

Aurora sat on the sofa arm, causing Emma to groan again, the top of her dishevelled head appearing over the blanket. 

“Whas-going on?” She mumbled, screwing her eyes up against the sudden influx of light.

“Morning sleeping beauty,” Snow smiled at her daughter’s ruffled appearance, Aurora giving her a funny look. 

“Turn of phrase,” she explained, the other woman shrugging and moving to actually sit on the sofa as Emma heaved herself upright. Ruby passed the coffee over to her and she took a sip, running a hand through her hair. 

“Why are you guys here?” She asked, stifling a yawn. 

“It’s Saturday,” Snow said, by way of explanation. Emma nodded, her weekly lunches with her mother were often crashed by Ruby, Mulan or anyone else who wanted to come along. 

“What time is it?” Emma continued, trying to keep her head still to minimise the pain. 

“Almost one,” Ruby answered, still smirking slightly.

“Urgh,” was the articulate response. 

Without saying anything Regina moved back into Emma’s bedroom, closing the door behind her so she could put her dress back on in peace. She wasn’t much of a morning person at the best of times, and this bizarre situation was not helping with her hangover. 

Emma stood and stretched, her body slightly sore from dancing and wearing ridiculous heels all night. 

The four women sat at the table, Ruby placing the brown bag of food at the end and opening it. The delicious scent of grilled cheese wafted towards Emma and she sighed in appreciation. 

When Regina emerged again from the bedroom, in last night’s dress, the food was all laid out. 

“Regina, come and join us!” Snow exclaimed, grabbing a few plates from one of the cupboards. “We always get way too much food”. 

Regina hovered in the doorway uncertainly. Emma looked up from her sandwich, and smiled slightly at her friend to show her she wasn’t intruding or unwelcome. The former queen crossed over to take the empty seat across from Emma, thanking Aurora as she passed her a plate. 

Conversation flowed easily, Ruby and Emma teasing each other about how much they had drunk, Snow lamenting that she had had to go home early, Aurora telling them about Mulan’s insistence on continuing the party in their flat – blasting music until one of the neighbours pounded on the wall angrily. 

After a break in the chatter, Snow suddenly piped up – “Emma, did I tell you I know a guy who sounds perfect for you, and he’s recently single!” 

Her smile was so bright that Emma winced. 

“Mom, it didn’t exactly go so well last time,” She pointed out. 

“You can’t never date again just because it didn’t go well with Naveen,” her mother protested, then continued to give Emma all the details about Li Shang, who was the gym teacher at her school. 

Emma nodded along, and halfway through she looked up to meet Regina’s eyes. They both had to look away quickly or else start laughing at Snow’s enthusiasm. She really wasn’t going to take no for an answer. 

“I’ll see Mom,” Emma said eventually, trying to change the subject before her mother continued. 

“How’s that guy you were seeing Ruby?” She asked, stealing an onion ring off her friend’s plate. 

“Oh that’s a flop,” the other woman said, stealing her onion ring back. “He’s so dull, I almost fell asleep on our second date”. 

“That’s a shame,” Aurora said. 

“Yeah – but there’s plenty more fish in the sea!” Ruby replied cheerfully. 

The conversation turned towards Ruby’s new internship at the Mayor’s office – a subject which she was happy to expound upon, and that Regina was interested to hear about. It turned out Ruby was a highly organised and driven young woman and she was considering taking her on full time at some point in the future.

It was almost 3 before the lunch group broke up – Aurora giving Snow and Ruby a lift back to their respective homes. 

Regina grabbed her bag and jacket from Emma’s bed, whilst Emma was clearing the plates from the table. 

“I’d better go,” she said when she came back out. 

“I’ll drive you,” Emma replied immediately. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, I can walk!” Regina protested. 

“Regina, I’m not risking your safety – I’m starting to think this Smith guy might be more intense than we thought,” Emma replied, shivering at the half-forgotten memory of a hulking figure concealed in the darkness.

“You can’t drive, you must still be over the limit,” the other woman pointed out – leaning slightly on the counter to take the pressure off her sore feet. Emma realised Regina was right. 

“I’ll call you a cab then,” she changed her plan, grabbing her phone from the edge of the couch. 

Regina decided it was best to let Emma do what she wanted – she didn’t really have the energy to fight her, or to walk home, so it was probably a sensible idea to get a lift.   
“They’ll be here in five,” Emma confirmed, throwing her phone back on the sofa. 

“Ok,” Regina replied, slightly at a loss as to what to say. There was a few moments of awkward silence. Emma carried on cleaning up. 

The silence was broken when Emma tried to bend to pick up a bit of salad which had fallen on the floor by the table. Her calves protested loudly and she ended up making a strange strangled noise. 

“Are you alright?” Regina asked, slightly alarmed. 

“Yeah I’m fine,” Emma replied, “Just haven’t danced that much in a long time,” she grinned abashedly. 

“Oh I feel your pain – quite literally,” Regina agreed – she had been trying to ignore her aching muscles. 

“It was fun though,” Emma mused, lost in recollection of the night before. 

“It was,” Regina nodded, “we should – we should all do it again some time?” She ventured tentatively. 

“Yeah we should!” Emma replied with enthusiasm, she couldn’t remember a recent time when she had felt more relaxed and happy. Regina smiled. 

“Although maybe we should limit Ashley to a couple of drinks in future,” she said. The two women laughed, pausing when the loud beep of a car horn sounded. 

“That’ll be the cab,” Regina said, unnecessarily. 

Emma suddenly realised she had no reason to see Regina until Wednesday – which seemed like years away at that moment. 

“Well, I’ll see you on Wednesday then?” she half-asked, hoping Regina hadn’t forgotten their new dinner arrangement. 

“Yes… yes,” Regina replied thoughtfully, realising the same thing Emma had. 

“Or, maybe before…” Emma felt the need to add. 

“Maybe,” Regina agreed – smiling at the thought of seeing her friend again sooner rather than later. 

She left the apartment, closing the door behind her and leaning on it for a second. 

Shaking her head to get rid of – whatever it was that was making her feel so strange – she made her way down the stairs and into the waiting taxi.


	9. Conversation and Compliments

The week had been particularly busy for both Emma and Regina. Somehow they’d managed to not see each other since Saturday morning. 

Dorothy, who had started at the sheriff’s station after arriving in Storybrooke from Oz, had been escorting Regina occasionally – and they had once encountered Smith, who had been lurking around outside the town hall. 

Regina had discovered that she like the younger woman – who wasn’t one to mince words or do things unnecessarily. She was brisk and efficient and Regina was impressed with her. 

She was walking Regina home from work on Tuesday evening – the Mayor had decided she couldn’t drive to and from work every day because she missed getting her daily exercise. 

Regina was telling Dorothy about the internship Ruby was doing, the former Oz-resident seemed interested.

“I’ve only talked to Ruby a couple of times,” Dorothy said, slightly too casually, and Regina glanced at her.

“She’s a nice young woman,” the Mayor replied, equally casual in her tone. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Dorothy continued, sticking her hands in her jean pockets. The action was so reminiscent of Emma that Regina smiled. 

The conversation moved on, but Regina made a note in her head to talk to Emma about this tomorrow evening. She’d been doing that quite a lot lately, if she wasn’t careful she’d have so much to say to the Sheriff that she’d run out of time.

“Henry?!” She called after she’d parted with Dorothy at her gate and entered the house. 

“Hi Mom,” he said, walking from the kitchen to the hall to greet Regina.

“Emma already dropped you off then?” She said, trying not to sound disappointed. 

“Er, yeah,” Henry replied, thinking that this was quite obvious – seeing as he was right there in front of her. 

“Right,” Regina agreed, nodding, “let’s get some dinner sorted out then shall we,” she continued, in the soft, warm tone that she reserved just for her son. 

***

“Hello Emma, are you doing something nice tonight?” Archie asked pleasantly, nodding his head towards the fancy bottle of wine Emma had just purchased in the grocery store.

“Oh hi Archie, I’m just going dinner at Regina’s,” Emma replied. She didn’t really know why she’d bought the wine, but she had wanted to do something nice for her friend.

“That sounds fun, say hi to the Mayor for me,” Archie replied, tugging Pongo away and giving Emma a wave as he continued down the street.

“Will do!” Emma responded, continuing on her way to Mifflin Street. 

As she walked up Regina’s garden path she ran a hand through her hair and pursed her lips together, hoping her subtle lipstick was still in place. She felt a bit nervous, although she wasn’t sure why. 

She knocked on the door. 

“Emma!” Henry exclaimed as he opened the door a moment later. 

“Hey kid,” She said fondly, giving him a one-armed hug. 

“Come in,” he continued impatiently, striding through the hall towards the kitchen, “Mom’s making lasagna and it smells amazing,” he added. 

Emma agreed, the aroma coming from the kitchen was heavenly. She followed her son through, and spotted Regina standing up from checking the dish in the oven. 

For a split second Emma felt something tighten in her chest as Regina smiled at her in greeting. It was probably just the onion ring sandwich she’d had for lunch, she thought.

“Hi Regina,” she said, moving forwards and holding out the wine clumsily. 

“Oh Emma, you didn’t have to bring anything,” Regina scolded, but she got two glasses from the cupboard a moment later – smiling at Emma’s gesture. 

It seemed like no time passed at all before they were all sat at the table – even though it had taken 45 minutes for the lasagna to finally be ready. Henry, who had been finishing his homework in the other room at his Mom’s insistence, almost ran to the table in anticipation of the meal. 

“I like Dorothy,” Regina responded to Emma’s question about how the set-up was going, “she’s sensible and punctual”.

Emma rolled her eyes. Of course good time-keeping would be the reason Regina liked her deputy. 

“Has she ever mentioned Ruby to you at all?” Regina asked, glancing at Henry who was too involved in his food to notice the conversation at that moment.

“Ruby?” Emma asked, nonplussed. 

“I think she might… have a preference for the werewolf,” Regina said, glancing at Emma to see her reaction. 

Emma was surprised, “Really?! I had no idea,” she said, quickly thinking over all the instances she’d seen Dorothy and Ruby together. 

“Did you think Ruby would be interested in-” Regina cut herself off, looking at Henry again. She didn’t want Henry to think she and Emma were gossiping. Which was exactly what they were doing. 

“In a girl? Yeah,” Emma replied, grinning as she thought back to Ruby’s outrageous flirting the first time they met. 

Regina was not sure what to make of Emma’s grin and just nodded quietly, spooning more beans onto Henry’s plate. 

“I’ll have to talk to Ruby,” Emma added, musing on the possibilities of Dorothy and Ruby together. 

The conversation changed and soon it was time for Henry to go to bed and Emma to leave. 

After their son had ascended the stairs, Emma and Regina stood in the hallway talking. 

When Emma had stopped telling Regina the story of her attempt to persuade Snow that she didn’t really want to date right now after all – to much amusement from the Mayor – there was a pause.

Regina wanted to ask something, but she wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. Or how to ask without it seeming… strange. 

“How – how did you know Ruby was bisexual?” She asked tentatively. The question didn’t really make sense. Most people would have just assumed that Ruby told her close friend about her love life, but Regina thought there might be more to the story. 

“Well,” Emma said thoughtfully, thinking back to meeting Ruby, “when we first met Ruby flirted with me quite a lot – she used to give me free bear claws and stuff, but it was never going to work out – we became really good friends though of course,” she answered. 

Regina realised that Emma hadn’t said, “But I’m not interested in girls,” at all in that explanation. She desperately wanted to know more. 

“So, you didn’t fancy Ruby or – or…” She prompted, slightly ineptly. 

“Oh well, she’s hot of course,” Emma exclaimed laughing, “but that was just after I arrived here so I was focused on Henry, and afterwards was kind of when I was interested in Graham,” she added a bit awkwardly. 

“Right of course,” Regina replied. Her smile seemed to be stuck to her face. She had never really talked to Emma like this before – like a close friend, like a best friend perhaps. It sounded childish when she thought about it like that, but she couldn't bring herself to care. 

“Ruby flirts with everyone as well, so it can be kind of hard to work out if she’s actually interested or just being herself!” Emma continued. She didn’t want to leave. 

“She’s never flirted with me,” Regina pointed out, even though she knew she could blame her ex-Evil Queen persona for that. 

“Trust me, it’s not for lack of wanting to!” Emma chuckled, grinning at the look on Regina’s face. 

“Oh come on, you don’t think people notice that you’re hot?!” She continued, not really sure why she was being so honest. She blamed the fancy wine. 

“I – I…” Regina stuttered slightly. She had been told she was attractive before, but she had no idea how to reply to being called hot by the Sheriff, the Saviour – Emma Swan herself.

Emma laughed again, “You’re more modest than I thought,” she said, opening the front door. 

“See you soon Regina,” she added, smiling. 

“Oh – y-yeah – bye, Emma,” Regina replied, closing the door behind her friend and leaning back on it for a second, unconsciously mimicking the last time she'd said goodbye to Miss Swan. For some reason, she felt like she needed the support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so sorry about not getting chapters up for the last few days - I had a family thing... but here's Chapter 9 and I'll be returning to posting everyday from now on!


	10. Sisters and Shocked Sheriffs

Regina was standing alone in the dewy graveyard, one hand resting on a grey headstone. 

She had not slept well, and when she got up she knew she wanted to see Robin, to talk to him maybe. 

It was over a year since he’d died, or whatever it was that Hades had done. Regina still liked to come and vent her feelings sometimes, she knew Robin would have listened patiently, and then he would have said the perfect thing to help. 

Sighing she walked away, heading for the gate which led back to the road. 

As she was driving home she decided suddenly that she wanted to see her niece, and she turned off on to the road to Zelena’s house. The history between them might have been complicated, but baby Robyn was a part of her Robin – and she always made Regina feel better. 

“Hi, Regina?” Zelena said – half-greeting, half-questioning – “were we expecting you?” 

“No, I just… I went to visit Robin so I thought I’d come and see little Robyn, if that’s ok?” Regina explained, trying to be open and honest with her sister. 

“Yes that’s fine, come in we were just having lunch,” Zelena replied cordially, leading the way to the kitchen. 

Robyn was sitting in her highchair, waving one of her arms in the air enthusiastically. She giggled when she saw Regina and her mother, and Regina felt her heart jump. 

“Do you want to feed her?” Zelena asked cautiously, holding out the jar of baby food and the spoon she had been using. 

Regina nodded, and settled into the chair across from Robyn. Zelena grabbed her kettle and filled it up to make tea. 

After a little small talk, Zelena asked her sister about Mulan’s party the week before. 

Regina was not the kind of woman who blushed, but her face felt a little warm. Zelena became more curious as the other woman paused. 

“It was good, we went to that new bar – Tiana’s – afterwards,” she answered, focusing her eyes on the baby who was gumming her food happily. 

“Oh? Is it nice?” Zelena prompted. 

“The bar? Yeah it was really nice, it had good music,” Regina admitted. 

“So, anything interesting happen?” Zelena said, her usual bluntness coming to the surface. 

“Not really,” Regina deflected, “although, I did learn some interesting information the other day…” 

She told Zelena about Dorothy and Ruby, making her swear not to tell anyone else. She knew she was obviously changing the subject, but despite that it was nice to gossip with Zelena like normal sisters. 

As for Zelena, she made a mental note to talk to the little werewolf about what had actually happened on Friday night. 

***

“Regina was naked?!” the former Wicked Witch shouted disbelievingly. 

“No, no she had Emma’s robe on,” Ruby clarified calmly. 

“How is that any better?!” Zelena demanded, scandalised. 

“I don’t think anything happened,” Ruby said, putting down the tray of empty plates and glasses she was supposed to be taking to the kitchen, and sliding into the booth across from Zelena. 

“And would it be so bad if it did?” She added. 

Zelena was uncharacteristically quiet while she absorbed this new information.

“I suppose not,” she said begrudgingly, not really wanting to think about her sister’s sex life. 

“They could be good for each other,” Ruby continued. She and Mulan had already had this conversation several times, but it was nice to talk to someone else about it. 

While Zelena was thinking this over, the door opened and a man walked in. Ruby glanced up, recognising him as John Smith, who came in sometimes for takeaway coffee. She smiled in greeting. 

Smith walked across the diner and took a seat in the booth behind Ruby, so he was facing Zelena. 

Ruby gave him a few minutes, chatting to Zelena about Friday night a little more, then she got up to take his order. He didn’t normally eat in, but she supposed it wasn’t that strange. 

He asked for black coffee. Ruby strolled off to the back to fetch it.

Zelena was fussing with Robyn, who was in her car seat by her mother’s feet, but after a few moments she became aware that the man who had just entered was staring at her.   
She didn’t think much about it. Men stared at her quite regularly. She went back to playing with her daughter, waiting for Ruby to return so she could ask some more questions.

The bell above the door rang again and Zelena glanced up to see who it was.

The Sheriff. She smirked slightly, remembering Ruby’s tales of the party. 

To her surprise, the first thing Emma did was stiffen noticeably and glare at the man occupying the other booth. Zelena wondered who he was to deserve such rage from the Darling Saviour. 

Ruby returned with Smith’s coffee, breaking Emma out of her moment of anger. When she’d delivered the beverage she waved at the blonde, who took a seat at the breakfast bar.

“Hey Em,” she said cheerfully. She glanced across the room at Zelena and had to stifle a grin. 

Emma, on the other hand, was stony-faced. 

“Do you know who that guy is?” She asked in a low voice, jerking her head to indicate the Smith behind her. 

“Oh,” Ruby replied, her eyebrows drawing together, “yeah that’s John Smith right?” she said. “Hey wasn’t he in here the other day on a date with Regina?” she continued, her voice mischievous and her eyebrows waggling slightly. 

Emma’s expression didn’t change, which confused Ruby – until she realised something. 

“Oh!” She exclaimed, “Em, there’s no need to be jealous, I don’t think it went particularly well-” she reassured her friend, who now looked nonplussed. 

“Ruby, what are you talking about – the reason I don’t like Smith is because he’s been following Regina round, yelling at her and calling her names,” the sheriff explained. 

Ruby’s hand flew to her mouth, “Oh that’s dreadful!” she squealed – then, realising how loud she’d spoken, she winced. 

“Yeah,” Emma said, distractedly, “what – what did you mean there’s no reason to be jealous, why would I be jealous of Smith?” she asked, wondering what her friend was thinking.

“Er,” Ruby stalled, realising what she’d said, “no, I didn’t mean anything – I was just…” she trailed off, trying to think of a good excuse. Emma stared at the stuttering waitress, an idea slowly occurring to her. 

“Wait, you don’t think I’m – I’m,” she was going to say ‘interested in Regina’ but she couldn’t quite get the words out. 

“Well… are you?” Ruby asked, once it became clear that Emma wasn’t going to finish her sentence.

“No!” came the reply, Emma’s face a picture of shock, “of course not, she’s – she’s,” Emma was not sure what she was. 

“Henry’s other mother,” she finished triumphantly.

“So?” Ruby replied, rolling her eyes, “surely that’s a pro not a con,” she added.

“And – and she was the Evil Queen!” Emma scrambled for reasons, knowing this was flimsy at best. 

“Key word there is ‘was’ Emma, Regina’s been part of our little Storybrooke family for years now, and you know it,” Ruby pointed out, her earlier amusement returning slightly as she watched the Sheriff flounder. 

“This is ridiculous,” Emma scoffed, “can I just get a coffee to go please – with no gossip or accusations attached…”

Ruby rolled her eyes again, but she was actually perfectly content with Emma’s denial – she didn’t want to throw a spanner in the works of whatever was going on between her and Regina. 

She passed over the coffee and the blonde woman left, muttering a goodbye. 

Emma’s brain was full of Ruby’s questions, and a certain dark-haired Mayor. As she reached the end of the path to Granny’s the Sheriff glanced back through the windows at the waitress and the man sipping his coffee in the booth. She was trying very, very hard to keep Regina out of her head. 

And she was failing, miserably.


	11. Teachers and Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys - I know I normally put notes at the end but I just wanted to put a bit of a trigger warning for homophobia/sexism in this chapter. It's very mild, but I want everyone to stay safe and happy!
> 
> Also, I'm from England and we have Parents Night here - not sure what happens in America, but I'm hoping there's something similar.

It was Wednesday again. 

Emma hadn’t seen Regina for a couple of days – having talked to her briefly when the other woman dropped Henry off at the flat on Sunday. 

The Sheriff was currently picking out what she was going to wear. Normally she would just wear whatever she had worn to work, but she’d managed to spill coffee all down her shirt and trousers when she'd gotten home.

She’d pulled the blue jeans and white top off and thrown them in the laundry basket. Now she was standing in front of her wardrobe in her underwear. 

Deciding to go for something a bit different she pulled out a casual grey dress, black tights and her black boots. 

She was just shrugging into her red leather jacket when her phone rang. 

“Emma?!” came a slightly panicky sounding voice. 

“Regina?” Emma answered, “What’s wrong?” she demanded, her heart jumping to her throat immediately. 

“Oh, nothing – nothing bad,” Regina clarified, “but Henry’s just told me that it’s Parents Night tonight, it starts in ten minutes - I can't believe he didn't tell me sooner - but I think if I leave for yours now we should be able to make it-” she added, without taking a breath. 

“Woah, woah, slow down,” Emma said, relaxing now she knew there was no danger, “you want me to come?” she blurted, even though she knew they both had a right to go to Parents Night. 

“Of course Emma, now we don’t have time-” Regina said exasperated. 

“Ok, ok come and pick me up – we’ll be there in plenty of time,” Emma reassured, trying to make Regina calm down. 

It was agreed that Regina would arrive as soon as possible, after dropping Henry at his Grandparents’. 

Emma ran a brush through her hair and checked her make-up, she wanted to look as professional and as sensible as possible for Henry’s teachers. Especially next to Regina.

Regina arrived not long afterwards and Emma jogged down the stairs to her car. 

“Hey,” the Mayor said once Emma had climbed in. She glanced across at Henry’s other mother as she pulled off. 

“You look nice,” she blurted without thinking, and with far more surprise than was necessary. 

“Oh, thanks,” Emma replied, a little shocked herself.

There was silence for a moment, until Emma prompted Regina to tell her how Henry had got them into this situation. It turned out to be a pretty short story - Henry having just completely forgotten to tell anyone.

They arrived just after 7. Regina climbed at of the car as quickly as she could, Emma following suit, and the two women marched into the school. 

Despite the rush Emma noticed that Regina was wearing a killer red dress under her grey coat. She winced slightly and Regina looked at her questioningly. 

“It’s nothing,” Emma insisted, too embarrassed to point out the fact that they had unknowingly colour-coordinated their outfits. 

They managed to get to their first teacher interview right on time, the two women sighing in relief as they took a seat - waiting to be called in. 

“Mrs Mills?” The man called, gesturing at them.

“It’s Mayor Mills,” Regina corrected, taking one of the seats in front of the desk. 

“Ah yes, I remember now - we've met before," the teacher replied, "And you’re Sheriff Swan,” he said in Emma’s direction, not seeming to require a response. Emma nodded anyway.

“I’m Mr Andrews,” he added. 

“Well, Henry seems to be doing fine in all his classes at the moment – he’s right on track,” he explained, looking down at Henry’s file. Mr Andrews was apparently very impressed with Henry, and he seemed to be a nice man who genuinely cared about his students. 

Regina smiled proudly through the whole thing. Henry worked hard and he was bright, she wasn’t surprised that his classes were going well, even with everything else going on in his life. 

Every meeting they went to with each of Henry’s teachers was similar, there were very few problems. As they left the penultimate teacher’s office Emma and Regina were beaming.

They made their way down the corridor, talking excitedly about their son’s progress.

The last teacher was new at the school and neither Emma nor Regina had ever seen him before. They entered the office when called, shaking hands with the tall, middle-aged man.

“Oh,” Mr Maddison said, looking between the two of them. 

“Hello, we’re Henry’s parents,” Regina intoned smoothly, “I’m Regina Mills and this is Emma Swan,” she gestured at Emma. 

“Well, ok then,” the teacher replied, and Emma glanced at Regina, confused at the chilly greeting. 

Regina was not in the least confused. Her demeanour immediately changed, and Emma shivered slightly as she watched her friend acquire an air of the Evil Queen about her.

Sitting, they waited for Mr Maddison to speak again. 

“So, I’m Henry’s new maths teacher,” he explained redundantly, shuffling some of the papers on his desk. 

“Now, it seems maths is one of the subjects Henry struggles most with,” Maddison said looking at Henry’s grades. Regina nodded to herself, Henry had always preferred English.

“I’m just wondering if it’s possible his home life has something to do with that?” he continued.

Regina froze, immediately understanding Maddison’s meaning. Emma’s eyebrows drew together, “what do you mean?” she inquired politely, hoping she’d got the wrong end of the stick. 

“Sometimes we find children with two mothers just don’t have the right help with some of their subjects,” Maddison explained, "and although I'm sure there are some women who are perfectly acceptable mathematicians, young boys often need a father to help with the more - challenging - problems," he added, in what he obviously thought was a delicate tone. 

Emma was feeling anything but delicate. Anger rose inside her so fast that she was surprised she didn’t black out. She was lost for words. 

Luckily, Regina was not.

“Mr Maddison, if you are possibly suggesting that the fact Henry has two mothers is affecting his maths work I should inform you that I am the Mayor of this town. And as Mayor I am very committed to battling discrimination in workplaces and in schools,” her tone was cold as ice and every word was enunciated perfectly.

“So let me tell you right now that we will be letting the headmistress know of your opinions on women, and same-sex couples, and – hopefully – she will see that you are the wrong person to be working at this school,” she finished calmly. 

Emma couldn’t help but smile slightly at her friend’s subtle destruction of Mr Maddison. The man in question looked a little queasy. 

“M-Madame Mayor, I assure you-” he started, laying his hands palms down on the table in a subconscious attempt to placate the two women. 

“I think we’ve probably heard everything we need to,” Regina interrupted, standing gracefully and walking straight out into the corridor. Emma remained seated for a moment. Mr Maddison eyed her nervously. 

Emma snorted, “You should be scared,” she informed him gleefully – jumping out of her seat and following Regina. 

She found the other woman in the car park, leaning against her car. Emma could tell she was still furious. 

“Hey,” she called when she was close enough. 

Regina looked up at her, softening slightly when she realised it was Emma. 

“Can you even believe-” she started, not able to put her feelings into words. The calm she had affected a moment ago had evidently evaporated. 

“What a dick,” Emma supplied, vehemently. 

“Exactly,” Regina agreed, nodding. 

“What kind of arsehole believes women can’t do maths?!” Emma spluttered. 

“A misogynistic arsehole,” Regina answered, even though she knew Emma’s question was rhetorical. 

“You definitely need to talk to the headmistress about this…” Emma said, nodding to herself. 

“And not just misogynistic,” Regina continued, as though she hadn’t heard Emma, “but homophobic as well,” she finished. 

“That’s true,” Emma agreed, understanding what Regina was getting at. 

“I mean, we’re not a couple but what if we had been – same-sex parents need to be given the same respect heterosexual parents are,” she half-shouted. 

“I agree completely,” Emma chimed in. To be totally honest, she'd almost forgotten they weren't a couple for a moment there. Ruby's accusations from the other day echoed in her head for a brief moment. She dismissed them quickly.

“For god’s sake, I hope Henry hasn’t listened too closely to whatever that imbecile was teaching,” Regina added, starting to pace now as the anger flowed through her. 

“Henry would never be so stupid,” Emma reassured, taking Regina’s place leaning against the car. 

“Who knows how many of the other teachers feel the same way – what if they’re treating Henry differently because of us-” Regina’s emotions were edging closer to hysterical by this point and Emma decided it was time to step in. 

“Hey, hey,” she said, standing and taking hold of Regina’s upper arms. “Henry is doing amazing in school, and all of his other teachers were wonderful – don’t worry about our son, he’s smart and he has the heart of the truest believer, it’s just that one guy that has a problem,” she soothed her friend, watching as Regina’s face relaxed a little. 

“Come on, you shouldn’t drive – if you give me the keys I’ll take us home,” she suggested, still holding onto the Mayor. 

Regina nodded, holding out her keys. Emma took them and climbed in – starting the engine while she waited for Regina to join her. 

“Sorry if I was, a little hysterical,” Regina said quietly a few minutes later. 

“Not at all, it was an upsetting situation,” Emma replied. 

“It’s just – I always worry that I’m not a good enough parent to Henry and to have that man sit there and tell me that I’m not good enough was terrible,” she explained – keeping her eyes firmly on the road. 

“I get it,” Emma agreed, “I worry about that too – all the time”. 

Regina seemed to relax a little more. 

“So, do you still want to come for dinner?” She asked as they hit the main road. She really hoped Emma would say yes, she needed someone to help her unwind. 

“Of course!” Emma exclaimed. She winced a little at her extremely obvious enthusiasm - and for a second she could hear Ruby's voice in her head again. 

Regina merely smiled as Emma shook her head slightly, and then focused - a little too intently- on parking in front of the house.


	12. Reappearances and Realisations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight TW for panic/anxiety in this chapter. 
> 
> Only two more instalments left to go!

Regina had not had a good week. 

As well as the problem with Henry’s maths teacher and a truly astounding amount of paperwork, she was also still worried about Smith, who she saw far too often for her comfort. 

He’d been on a street corner as Dorothy walked her home last night, and he’d been in Granny’s when she’d taken Henry for dinner the day before. She didn’t want to admit her fear, but it was nagging at her constantly now. It was like a high noise in the background – constant and unnerving. 

On top of that, she had woken up late this morning – which had meant she had to skip breakfast and her morning coffee, having to drink the gross approximation at work instead. She had asked her assistant a thousand times to change the coffee, but each time it seemed to become worse than the last. 

There was a quiet tap on her door. “Hey,” Ruby called softly as she stuck her head round the frame, “I was just going to walk to Granny’s to grab some lunch if you want anything?” she asked. 

Regina considered for a moment, and then decided that she needed to get out of her office for a bit. 

“How about I tag along?” She asked tentatively. 

“Sure, that would be great!” Ruby responded, her natural exuberance showing through.

The two women were walking side by side down the road, chatting amiably, when Regina saw a familiar face. A jolt of pain ran through her chest and her breath caught for a moment. It was Smith. 

She kept walking. Ruby hadn’t seen him yet… in any case Regina wasn’t sure the other woman even knew what was going on – it was possible Emma or Dorothy had told her.

Regardless, Regina was fervently praying that he would leave them alone. 

“Morning Mayor,” Smith drawled as he crossed the street to get closer to them. The word ‘mayor’ was entirely sarcastic coming from his mouth. 

“Where’s the little wife?” He inquired scathingly, “or have you ditched her for a younger, sexier model?” he asked, letting his gaze fall on Ruby. 

“Leave us alone Smith,” Regina said brusquely, her eyes darting around – trying to find a way out of the situation. 

“That’s not very polite Your Majesty,” he scolded, pretending to be hurt, “I think someone should teach you some manners…” 

He was so close now that Regina could smell his cologne and feel the shadow across her face where he was blocking out the high midday sun. His height was forcing them to back away slightly. Regina’s heart was beating spasmodically now, the sound loud in her ears. 

“I could turn you into a beetle with a wave of my hand,” she said, trying to sound threatening. Something was wrong, her vision was blurring and her palms were tingling. 

Smith grabbed one of her arms and pulled her to the side. She tried to struggle but she couldn’t concentrate, she felt like she was in a dream. 

He took her chin in his hand roughly, turning her face up to his and glaring down at it. 

There was black at the corner of Regina’s vision. Her breathing was ragged, she could hear Ruby yelling something but she didn’t know what. She tried to use her magic, but nothing was happening.

Suddenly she felt a softer hand grab her free arm. A gust of wind swirled around her and she saw the bright light of a portal. She heard someone – a woman – growl something.   
Then everything was still. Smith had gone.

***

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Emma asked, for the thousandth time. 

“Yes,” Regina reassured her, rolling her eyes. 

They were sat in Granny’s with large mugs of cocoa, which Granny had forced on them, refusing to accept payment when she’d heard what happened. Regina was surprised someone hadn’t covered her in a blanket and shone a torch into her eyes yet. 

“I always thought Smith seemed a bit nasty,” Granny had said, “he had a girl in his life once – a pretty girl with a kind of musical name,” she added. 

“Po- poca something?” Ruby had piled on, straining her memory. 

“She left him, married another man,” Granny explained. 

“Same name,” Ruby said, “I remember – he was called John as well,” 

“Well whatever he was called, it destroyed Smith,” Granny mused, “he didn’t go out much after that, started seeing Archie pretty regularly…”

Emma sat back against the leather of the booth and watched Regina take a sip of her drink. 

Everything had changed for her a few minutes ago, when she’d seen Smith holding Regina off of the ground, when she’d seen Regina go limp – her whole body irresponsive to his dirty clawing hands. 

She knew then that she wanted to protect this woman forever. She couldn’t imagine life without her and she wanted to spend every day for the rest of her existence making sure she was ok. 

A greater anger than Emma had felt in a long time bubbled up inside her. She had been by Regina’s side in a second, her hand reaching for the other woman’s arm.   
As she touched Regina’s bare skin a flash of light vibrated outwards from them, catching Smith and flinging him back into a newly-created portal. 

She’d never done that before – neither had Regina to her knowledge. Hell, she wasn’t even sure it was possible. All she knew was that she had wanted Smith as far away from Regina as possible – and she definitely had not wanted him in their town anymore.

“You will never bother her again,” Emma had promised, her voice low and deadly, speaking to the air into which Smith had vanished. 

It went very quiet. Regina collapsed to the floor before Emma could react.

Her hands stroked the hot skin of Regina’s cheeks as she tried to bring her round, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ears gently. A few moments later brown eyes had flown open and Emma had almost cried in relief…

Both women felt exhausted now. Emma had cycled through more emotions than she could remember feeling in years, and Regina – Regina was just so happy Smith was gone.   
“I don’t know,” Emma had said truthfully, in response to Regina’s question as to the destination of the portal. 

Regina couldn’t bring herself to care. He was gone. 

She put her cocoa back on the table and looked up at Emma. The sheriff was already looking at her. There was a strange expression on her face, but Regina dismissed it. They’d been through a lot, Emma was probably just tired. 

“I should get back to the office,” Regina sighed resignedly. 

“No way, absolutely not, are you insane?!” Emma said forcefully, “I’m going to drive you home and you’re going to relax – sleep or take a bath or whatever, but you need to chill out for a bit…” 

Regina rolled her eyes as Emma finished. 

“I really am fine you know,” she protested half-heartedly. To be honest, a bath sounded like heaven. 

Emma just raised her eyebrows as if to say, ‘do you really want to fight me on this’.

Regina sighed again, standing slowly from her seat – an inch of cold cocoa congealing in the bottom of her cup.

“Fine, let’s go then,” she acquiesced. 

Emma jumped up from her seat and strode to the door, opening it so Regina could pass through. She smiled weakly in thanks. 

When they reached the car Regina paused.

“Emma,” she said, reaching a hand out to touch the sheriff’s arm, “thank you,” she finished, sincerely, her eyes soft and grateful. 

As she looked back at her, Emma knew she never wanted to look at anything else ever again. 

She was screwed.


	13. Panic and Preparation

“What am I going to do?” Emma demanded, pacing anxiously in front of her sofa.

Ruby looked over at Mulan – they were both sat on the couch, their eyes following the blonde’s progress back and forth.

“Emma,” Mulan started, her tone soothing, “I don’t want to presume anything – but if I had to guess, I would say Regina seems to like you as much as you like her,” she finished gently.

“I totally agree Em,” Ruby added, nodding enthusiastically.

“She – she can’t!” Emma exclaimed, continuing her erratic journey across the wooden floor.

“What do you mean?” Mulan asked, confused.

“I don’t know – she just, she can’t like me like that – why would she?!”

Emma’s tone was getting slightly hysterical now and Ruby and Mulan exchanged another glance.

Ruby jumped up.

“Sit down Em,” she said forcefully, placing her hands on the taller woman’s shoulders and guiding her to the sofa.

“Right,” she said, grabbing a chair from near the table and sitting in front of her, “you need to stop freaking out and think about this logically,” Emma looked dubious.

“Who does Regina spend most of her time with apart from Henry? You – who does Regina share a son with? You – who did Regina spend most of Mulan’s birthday flirting and dancing with? You!” Ruby listed, ticking things off on her fingers as she said them.

“We don’t even know if she likes women!” Emma wailed dramatically.

Ruby rolled her eyes, “no offence Em, but there’s only one way to find out – and it’s not sitting on this sofa trying to convince me and Mulan that you have no chance with her…”

Emma fell quiet. Ruby was, of course, right.

But she couldn’t just tell Regina how she felt. The very thought was utterly and completely petrifying.

“Will you guys help me?!” She asked her friends, slightly hysterical again.

“Emma, I’m not sure we can…” Mulan replied, uncertainly.

“Let’s go out again – like we did for your party,” Emma said, looking at Mulan, “we’ll have a few drinks, we’ll go to Tiana’s, it’ll be loads easier for me to talk to her like that,” Emma knew it sounded strange, but there was no way she could do this otherwise. She had grown a lot more emotionally mature since arriving in Storybrooke, but this was Regina.

Perfect, terrifying Regina.

“Alright,” Ruby agreed, after a moment, “we’ll get the girls together and decide on a night…”

“But you can’t back out Emma, you need to talk to her,” Mulan added, giving Emma a stern look.

“I know, I know,” Emma answered, already distracted by thinking about what she was going to say.

“I think it’s kinda cute to do it at Tiana’s – I think it sort of started there, this you-and-Regina thing,” Ruby mused, remembering the clasped hands and close bodies of their last trip to the bar.

Emma smiled weakly, similar memories running through her head.

“And the good thing is, if she doesn’t like you back, you can just get blind drunk,” Ruby added.

***

It was Saturday evening. The all-important trip to Tiana’s was starting with pre-drinks at Emma’s in roughly an hour.

And, without knowing it, Emma and Regina were currently doing exactly the same thing. Standing in front of their wardrobes in despair.

Emma groaned loudly and banged her head against the door to the closet.

She pulled out a couple of dresses and tried them on – but everything looked terrible. It needed to be perfect.

Eventually she called Ruby in despair. The former werewolf was round in a flash, ready to provide any kind of emotional or material support Emma needed. She’d brought half of her own wardrobe with her.

“What about this one?” She said, holding a hot pink dress up in front of her friend.

“I don’t think Regina’s really a pink kinda girl,” was Emma’s response.

“Emma, you can’t dress for Regina – you have to be yourself!” Ruby protested. An idea came to her, and she dug about in the pile of clothes.

“Aha!” She squealed in triumph pulling out an item of clothing. Emma’s eyebrows flew up, but she had to admit, it wasn’t a bad idea...

Meanwhile, Regina was becoming slowly more frustrated.

She grabbed her phone off of her dressing table and jabbed it a few times, holding it up to her ear a second later.

“Dorothy?!” She demanded, her nerves making her less polite than she normally would have been.

“Oh, hi Madame Mayor?” Dorothy responded, slightly confused as to why she was being rung by her boss at 9.30 on a Saturday.

“I need a favour,” Regina continued, a little more nicely.

Not long after Dorothy pulled up in front of the Mayor’s mansion. She waited for Regina to answer the door, with her hands wedged in her pockets.

When Regina finally appeared, the deputy’s eyebrows rose. The former Evil Queen looked positively frazzled, and was wearing a grey silk robe and nothing else.

“Er, hey,” Dorothy greeted her, awkwardly.

“Yes, hello Dorothy,” Regina replied, beckoning her in. “I need your help,” she said with no preamble, walking up the stairs and gesturing at Dorothy to follow her.

Dorothy trailed behind her, looking around at the spotless house nervously.

“I have no idea what to wear!” She exclaimed as they entered her bedroom.

It looked like Regina’s closet had exploded – there were clothes on every available surface.

“Er, I don’t understand,” Dorothy stuttered, “w-where are you going?”

“Oh right,” Regina replied scattily, “are you doing anything this evening?”

This had not been the reply Dorothy was expecting.

“Oh – no, not really,” she admitted. Regina nodded to herself.

“Me and some of the other women of Storybrooke are going on a night out to Tiana’s,” she explained, “will you come?” she added quickly.

“Er, ok – sure,” Dorothy responded, it was better than sitting in her apartment and watching scary movies. And Ruby might be there.

“But you have to help me find something to wear,” Regina clarified, picking up a red dress from a chair and immediately discarding it again.

“I’m not really the best at this sort of thing,” Dorothy pointed out.

“No matter, just tell me what looks good,” Regina responded. Then, with no hint of shyness, she dropped her robe. Walking over to her closet in just her underwear she grabbed a black dress and struggled into it.

Dorothy, who had awkwardly turned her back, swallowed dryly.

“Oh turn around, I’m not exactly indecent,” Regina scolded – holding her hands out so Dorothy could admire the dress.

“You look great,” Dorothy said, truthfully.

“Hmmm, I’m not sure,” Regina replied, looking in the floor length mirror. She pulled the item of clothing off again.

Dorothy, who was less shocked this time, held out a grey dress.

“That’s a work dress dear,” Regina explained kindly.

Dorothy grabbed a black leather skirt instead.

“Maybe,” Regina said, taking it and holding it against herself.

Eventually Dorothy migrated to Regina’s bed and sat down – realising that this might take some time. Regina had instructed her to borrow whatever she wanted so she didn’t have to go home before heading to Emma’s. She’d chosen a fairly simple black dress – the first one Regina had discarded.

“I don’t think so,” She said, shaking her head at the white dress Regina had on.

Regina groaned in annoyance, unknowingly echoing Emma from across Storybrooke.

“Can I ask why you’re so worried about what you wear?” Dorothy inquired, for all she knew it was a casual night out with Regina’s friends.

Regina collapsed onto the bed beside her new friend, still wearing the white number.

“I-I’m not sure…” Regina responded honestly.

Dorothy thought for a moment. Then she happened to glance down at her phone, which she had only just got the hang of. She had a message.

_“Hey – it’s Ruby here, some of the girls and I are going 2 Tiana’s tonight, would u like to come?”_ The text read. Dorothy smiled happily, inordinately glad that Ruby had thought to text her. They had talked a couple of times since Mulan’s party, but she hadn’t been expecting to be included in things like this so quickly.

_“Actually im just @ Regina’s now getting ready – she invited me 2,”_ she typed.

Regina tried on a few more outfits before Dorothy got a reply.

_“Regina’s?!”_ it said, _“do you know what she’s going to wear?”_

Dorothy assumed Ruby just meant to gauge the general style other people were going to be aiming for on their night out.

_“She can’t decide – she seems rly stressed about it?”_ She replied, as Regina chucked one of her skirts across the room.

_“Ooooh I think I might know why…”_ Ruby responded almost instantly.

_“Why?!”_ Dorothy would be happy to know what was making her boss go so crazy.

_“Emma,”_ was the succinct response. Dorothy knew what Ruby meant immediately and she had a sudden burst of inspiration.

She grabbed a tight royal blue dress from the corner and approached Regina.

“This one,” she declared, holding it out.

Regina looked at it, “why?” she said, wondering why Dorothy seemed so certain. Dorothy paused for a second.

“It’s Emma’s favourite colour on you,” she finally replied, truthfully.

Regina looked dumbstruck.

She took the hanger Dorothy passed to her absentmindedly, her eyes fixed on the Deputy’s face.

“What do you mean?” She asked breathlessly, a suspicion forming in her head.

“Emma told me once that she loved your blue coat – this dress is the same colour – it makes your hair look amazing,” Dorothy half-explained, hoping Regina would catch on quickly.

“No, but – why – why does it matter what Emma likes on me?” Regina stuttered slightly, uncharacteristically anxious.

“You tell me,” was Dorothy’s blunt response.

Regina was silent.

Her mind was racing, every moment spent with Emma in recent weeks flashing before her – and there were a lot of moments – when had her and Emma started spending so much time together? She wondered.

Her thoughts were treacherous. She clearly remembered every time Emma’s skin had made contact with her’s, every time they’d locked eyes for more than a second, every time she hadn’t wanted Emma to leave. Did friends do things like that?

She stared at Dorothy in disbelief.

Dorothy smirked, “And there it is,” she commented.

Regina had to sit down.

“Come on, your majesty,” Dorothy exclaimed cheerfully, much more relaxed than when she’d first arrived, “put that dress on quickly and then we can go get you a princess…”


	14. Beginnings and Bathrooms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter... slightly earlier than I expected to post it! Enjoy!

Regina was unbelievably nervous as her and Dorothy stood waiting for Emma to answer the door. 

She tugged at the bottom of the blue dress her friend had picked out and ran a hand through her dark hair. Dorothy also looked a little pale, glancing down at her borrowed dress anxiously. 

The door swung open. 

Regina’s mouth went treacherously dry as she saw what Emma was wearing. 

Emma, who had just finished doing her hair when they had knocked, smiled at Regina uncertainly – before greeting her and Dorothy. 

As she turned to lead them back into her flat, Regina couldn’t help but take in every inch of the sheriff’s outfit. 

She was wearing skin-tight black leather trousers that Regina had never seen before. They were clinging to Emma’s ass in a way that made the Mayor feel a little faint, if she was being honest. These magical, wonderful trousers were paired with an almost sheer black vest. Regina could see every muscle on the Sheriff’s arms in exquisite detail. 

Regina glanced at Dorothy in shock. Dorothy had to try very hard to stifle a laugh at the look on the Mayor’s face.

Emma – who had used the time she wasn’t facing Regina to compose herself a little – turned back to her guests and grinned. 

“You’re the first to get here,” she said, and Regina wondered if that was a bad thing. 

A moment later Ruby exited Emma’s bathroom, in a wicked red dress. 

It was Regina’s turn to smirk at the look on Dorothy’s face. 

“Hi! Glad you could come!” the younger girl squealed excitedly, directing her remark at the deputy. 

Emma and Regina exchanged a knowing glance, which made them both feel better. They were friends, this wasn’t weird, right? 

Not long after the rest of the girls started to arrive. It was the same group as before, except with the addition of Zelena, Snow and of course Dorothy. 

All eleven of them were in extremely high spirits. Drinks were knocked back with gusto and outfits were admired unabashedly. Emma winced slightly as she noticed Snow starting to get tipsy already. 

Soon it was half eleven – time to move the party out. 

Emma and Regina – who had somehow remained close to each other all night, despite a distinct air of awkwardness – climbed in to one of the taxis behind Ruby, Dorothy, Snow, and Ashley. Snow was having a loud argument with the driver by the time they pulled away.

In the other taxi, conversation had taken an interesting turn. 

“Emma and Regina?!” Ariel exclaimed, looking from Mulan to Aurora in shock. 

“Yes!” Aurora giggled at the expression on the mermaid’s face. 

“I can’t believe this,” Zelena murmured, although she was mostly resigned to the fact that her baby sister seemed to have lost her heart to the Saviour. 

“I think it’s adorable!” Aurora replied, squeezing Mulan’s hand lovingly. 

By the time they arrived at Tiana’s, the girls in the first taxi had a semi-developed plan to help Regina and Emma along. 

Inside the atmosphere was just as electric as before, only with slightly more people as it was a Saturday night. 

Drinks were ordered in large quantities and the party seized a couple of booths. 

Emma was, of course, sat next to Regina. Ashley was trying to talk to her, but all she could concentrate on was the heat from Regina’s thigh, pressed up against hers. She shuffled infinitesimally closer and realised she could smell the vanilla conditioner Regina used. 

She took a few gulps of her drink. 

“Regina?!” She yelled over the noise. 

“Emma?” Regina asked, not a 100% sure Emma was even talking to her as the music had obscured whatever the other woman had said. 

Emma leaned in closer, “do you want to dance?” she almost whispered, their close proximity meaning she didn’t have to shout. There may have been another reason, but Emma wouldn’t have admitted it. 

Regina turned so she could look at Emma directly. Their eyes met and there suddenly seemed to be an understanding between them. Regina smiled slightly. 

“Of course,” she replied, her tone soft. Emma – who couldn’t hear her very well – watched the Mayor’s beautiful mouth, reading what she’d said from her lips. 

The two stood without another word. 

Almost every other woman in the group watched them leave, their stares completely tactless. It didn’t really matter – Emma and Regina didn’t notice. 

The music seemed to climb inside Emma’s chest as she led Regina to the dance floor. 

The other woman started swaying to the beat and Emma’s heart stuttered slightly at how close they were. There didn’t seem to be any going back now. Friends did not dance like this.  
The song blasting through the bar seemed to ebb and flow endlessly, their bodies moving with it. The space between them narrowed until it was non-existent.

At some point, the rest of their party joined them - realising as they did that they weren't going to have to use their plan for Emma and Regina. The other women didn't notice anyone but each other. It was probably for the best that Emma didn’t have to see the scandalised look on Snow’s face as the former bandit realised what was going on. 

Emma could feel Regina’s whole body against hers, heat bubbling from all the points of contact. Regina placed a hand on her cheek as the music reached a crescendo. Emma’s heart almost stopped. 

And then their lips were pressing together. Regina could taste the wine Emma had been drinking and Emma could feel Regina’s lipstick on her mouth. Their breath came fast and sharp when they pulled apart, their foreheads touching gently.

Emma chuckled. And Regina pulled back to look at her softly. 

“I think I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time,” the blonde woman said quietly, her lips brushing against Regina’s ear. 

Regina smiled, cupping Emma’s cheek in her hand again for a second, before moving it to the back of her neck and pulling her into another kiss. 

This time it was softer, a promise between the two of them. 

Behind them, and unnoticed by either, their friends were cheering and clapping loudly. 

*** 

A long while later…

“Emma! Emma?!” Ruby called frantically, fiddling with the straps of her floor-length pale yellow dress. 

“Oh good Mulan – have you seen Emma?!” She exclaimed, as the other woman passed her – carrying a matching dress to Ruby’s. 

“No, I haven’t – I was just about to go and get changed,” she gestured to the bag she was holding. 

“Ok, ok, you go – I’m sure she’s just getting some air,” Ruby waved her off distractedly. 

She almost ran straight into Dorothy a second later. 

“Hey babe, babe breath,” Dorothy said, taking Ruby’s shoulders and smiling at her reassuringly. 

“I can’t find her!” Ruby shouted, her wild eyes begging her girlfriend to help her. 

“Ok,” Dorothy replied calmly, “did you check the bathroom?” she asked. 

Ruby was silent. She hadn’t checked the bathroom, and now she thought about it that seemed like an extremely dumb thing to do. 

Dorothy chuckled and kissed the other women’s forehead happily. She was cute when she was flustered. 

The two of them wound down the back corridors of Granny’s, Dorothy leading the way – holding onto one side of her own yellow dress so it didn’t get trodden on. 

“Emma?!” She called, as they neared the bathroom nearest the diner. They could almost see the spotless main room with its yellow streamers and vases of yellow daisies. 

Opening the door they saw the sheriff stood in front of the mirror, staring hard at her own reflection. 

She turned as the two entered, holding her arms out. 

“How do I look?” She asked, nervously. 

Dorothy and Ruby smiled in sync. 

“Hot as hell,” Ruby assured her friend truthfully – the tight black suit and tall black heels Emma was wearing making her look equal parts sexy and suave. 

Emma laughed, giving Ruby a one-armed hug and grinning at Dorothy. 

“Come on then, we better get out there,” Dorothy prompted, she was taking her job as Regina’s best woman pretty seriously. She had been honoured to have been asked – expecting Regina to have her sister by her side, but Zelena was already walking her down the aisle and the Mayor and the Deputy had become close friends in the years since their first encounters. 

Dorothy grinned to herself as she led the way out of the bathroom, remembering Emma and Regina’s first kiss in Tiana’s like it was yesterday. 

Ruby followed her, squeezing Emma’s hand and leaving the blonde woman who hung back for a second. She needed to find Henry and check that Emma’s teenage best man hadn’t lost the rings. 

She glanced around the room, lost in memories of her own. She chuckled as she recalled with absolute clarity her and Regina’s conversation in this very bathroom – the fateful night of their terrible, terrible dates. 

Shaking her head ruefully she pushed the door open, turning to enter the diner on her left.

She was about to marry the woman she loved in a room full of her family and friends. And she really couldn’t be happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read this story!


End file.
